Hi All! One of my hens was attacked tonight. We think it was by an owl because she has a pretty big and deep open puncture wound on her back. We couldn't find any other injuries on her body. I didn't know exactly what to do, so I cleaned the area a little with warm water (I didn't have any iodine), then packed the hole with triple antibiotic ointment and gauze. I left the gauze over the wound, and wrapped her body with some cohesive wrap to hold it in place. I made up a crate for her, and she is now in our bathroom convalescing. I'm giving her aspirin in her water (81mg/quart). She ate and drank normally before I turned the lights out. My questions are: 1) Should I clip all the bloodied feathers around the wound? 2) Should I continue to wash out the wound and repack with ABX and gauze daily until healed (I plan on picking up some iodine wash tomorrow)? and 3) Does anyone have any more advice for us? Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Your on the correct track, clean it and put ointment on it .. if you keep her inside you may not need to keep her wrapped all the time. You can remove the feathers if they are interfering with treatment. I helped a friend treat one that was attacked by a hawk and had the entire neck ringed. All healed after 2 weeks of living in the bath room..
